The franchise is back after a laborious seven years that included COVID and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but filmmaker Christian Gudegast believes a third installment will come much sooner.

I wasn’t actively writing about movies when Den of Thieves came out in 2018, so it was one I opted to skip at the time. However, I became aware that a bit of a cult following started to grow around the Gerard Butler heist movie,

Gerard Butler didn't have the best time filming Den of Thieves 2: Pantera as he shot the movie "with a freshly torn ACL."

The dogged cop and wily thief butt heads again in Christian Gudegast's follow-up to his 2018 heist thriller. Imagine the iconic diner sit-down scene between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Michael Mann’s Heat stretched out to feature length and you’ll get some idea of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

Now, Butler and Jackson are back in “ Den of Thieves 2: Pantera ,” and Petzold and other fans of the original will be happy to hear that the sequel is even better than the original: faster, funnier, and jammed with spectacular action set pieces that Gudegast shot on a swift schedule.

Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr. are back in "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera" for more white-knuckled heist action. The sequel puts Big Nick back on the path of Donnie, who has managed to get embroiled in the world of international diamond theft.

In the upcoming movie Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Detective Nicholas “Big Nick” O'Brien (Gerard Butler) and Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) continue their feud from Den of Thieves. It could set them up for a third matchup, a rubber match, as they say in wrestling.

Christian Gudegast's sequel ups the stupidity of the cat-and-mouse thriller that preceded it en route to becoming far more entertaining than it had any right to be.